Regardless of your age, it is always helpful to increase your understanding of how your current students learn and what your future students might need because students learn in a variety of ways. This course will focus on the influence of generational characteristics on learning styles. Your students learn differently than you do. Come find out how to help your students learn more and discover something new about yourself too!

We will explore fascinating information on the brain and how each generation has responded to their unique “cohort experience." You will acquire the skills and information needed to facilitate Gen Y and the emerging generation of learners. Understand how your own generational characteristics impact your learning AND your teaching.
Come away with our top 20 generational techniques for helping your students learn more.

One month course, Kassia Dellabough, MS, GCDF instructor.

optional additional $40 USD paid later for graduate credit from the University of South Dakota.

The impact of generational characteristics on approaches to and expectations of education, perceptions of time, prioritizing work/life/school, goals and ambition, collaborative vs. individual, worldview, inputs versus outcomes and other value differences

Unit 4

Helping Your Gen Y Students to Learn More

Communication tips with Gen Y students and the emerging generation

Classroom instruction tips for Gen Y and the emerging generation

Addressing awkwardness and other social characteristics of Gen Y

Understanding and using technology to facilitate learning

The top 20 generational techniques for helping your students learn more

About online learning

Online learning is a fun, enjoyable and very productive way to learn. Millions of people are learning online each year. You will engage with the instructor and other participants. You will get to know your instructor and other participants. You may make friends. It’s easy. It’s fun.

How the Course Works

It is easy to participate in your online course. After you register, you will be given a web address to go to get into your online classroom. You will have a password and use your email address and password to gain access.

Once inside the online classroom, here’s what you can expect.

Participate when you want

You can participate any time of day or evening. The online classroom is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
There are no live real-time requirements or meetings. You decide when you participate.
For the best learning, participants should log into the course on 2-3 different days of the week.

What you will do

For each Unit, you will:

Read the print readings (about 20 pages a week)

Have the option of accessing the online readings

Listen to the audio presentation for the Unit and view the slides

Have the option of taking a self-quiz to see how much you have learned

Engage in written online discussion with your instructor and other participants

For best learning, you should make one or more comments at 2-3 different times each week.
The content (readings, audio lectures, slides) and self quizzes are accessible for the entire course, so you can work ahead, or go back and review again, at your convenience.

Discussion

The Discussion for each Unit lasts one week. All comments are made in writing and can be made at any time of the day or night.

Your instructor will log into the Discussion area at least once a day and answer questions, make comments, and respond to comments by you and the other participants.

We encourage you to make 2-3 comments each week to maximize your learning and enjoyment of the course.

Kassia Dellabough has over thirty years of teaching experience ranging from Montessori pre-school to teaching as artist-in-residence in elementary and high school settings. She has been teaching at the university level for over 20 years and currently holds a Senior Instructor position at the University of Oregon. She teaches a wide array of subjects ranging from Applied Creativity: Thinking Outside the Box to Presentation Skills and Portfolio Development. She currently teaches a general education Art and Human Values course both face-to-face and on-line. She was one of the pioneer faculty to teach on-line at the university in 1997 and serves as mentor for faculty across campus for on-line teaching.
Dellabough has worked as a career counselor with pre-service teachers on career preparation and developed a long-standing annual Career Explorations event focused on linking student teachers with school administrators for mentoring and career guidance. She has assisted students with the preparation of teaching portfolios for the national standards. She is a Qualified Meyers-Briggs Assessment Administrator, has a Neurolinguistic Practitioner Certification, and is a Global Career Development Facilitator certified by the GCDF Council for Credentialing & Education. Dellabough has written on the subject of generational learning styles, does speaking all over the United States and Canada on the subject, and is LERN’s lead presenter for a four day intensive training institute for professionals on the subject. She is currently completing her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. Her dissertation focus is on how an undergraduate arts curriculum facilitates cultural proficiency. She considers generational differences as one important facet of diversity.

Course Objectives

To foster an understanding among K-12 teachers of the different generations learning strategies and the differences in perception, expression, and interpretation of common situations in the classroom,

To create a better understanding of generational characteristics influence how your Gen Y students learn and behave in the classroom,

To understand the societal forces that shape each generational personality,

To create an understanding of how different generations communicate and assign different meaning to the same content,

To understand the core values of Generation Y and anticipate the emerging generation,

To minimize generational miscommunication between you as a teacher and your students

To provide concrete strategies for how to reach and teach Generation Y more effectively.

Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, you will:

Be able to recognize generational behaviors and interpret their meanings accurately,

Be able to interpret the generational language of members of your own generation as well as that of your Gen Y students, (and potentially administrators and coworkers)

Be able to adjust your own communication style and teaching strategies to be more effective with your students,

Understand the societal forces that shape generational behaviors,

Avoid/eliminate misunderstandings that lead to loss of learning and knowledge productivity,

Be able to employ successful teaching techniques to enhance your students’ learning based on their generational learning styles.